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A lot of segments and matches were scheduled for this week’s WWE RAW after the events of WWE Extreme Rules and last week’s show. Randy Orton was set to come out this week and announce who his next victim would be after taking out The World's Largest Athlete last week in an Unsanctioned Match.
After Rey Mysterio's eye was critically injured in the match against Seth Rollins at Extreme Rules, Dominik was also scheduled to come out and make a statement.
A Triple Threat Tag Team Match was announced for the night to find the next challengers for The Street Profits’ RAW Tag Team Championships. However, the two biggest matches for this week’s show were set to have Asuka and Sasha Banks compete in a match for the RAW Women’s Championship, and Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre in a match with a special stipulation of McIntyre’s choice.
With so many interesting segments and matches scheduled for the night, we will look at the 5 things WWE RAW got right on this week’s show.
#5 Randy Orton sets his sights on the prize on WWE RAW
One of the biggest scheduled segments of the night was set for Randy Orton to announce his next target on WWE RAW. After taking out Edge, Christian, and The Big Show on RAW, it seemed like The Viper was in no mood to slow down and decided to aim big this time.
He arrived in the ring and spoke about his accomplishments in WWE, comparing himself to some of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time.
Orton claimed that he’d been thinking what’s missing from his game, and he realized today that it was the WWE Championship that he wanted to take back. The Viper then decided to set his sights on the current WWE Champion Drew McIntyre, who has been quite vocal about facing the legend at SummerSlam in recent weeks.
Orton spoke about how The Scottish Psychopath had earned his place and respect after what he’d done to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 36 and made an official challenge to the Scottish Superstar for a WWE Championship match at SummerSlam.
While we’d already expected Orton to come out and challenge McIntyre for SummerSlam, it was the way he did it that made it more special. The Viper has often been criticized for his promos and robotic accent, but he did well once again to make an impact without getting physical.
McIntyre has officially been put on notice by The Viper, and it will be great to see how the fighting champion responds to the biggest challenge he’ll face in WWE.
#4 Andrade and Angel Garza aim for the WWE RAW Tag Team Championships
WWE RAW Tag Team Champions Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins joined the announcers’ table as we headed towards the scheduled Triple Threat Tag Team Match for the night.
Ricochet and Cedric Alexander, The Viking Raiders, and Andrade and Angel Garza were the three teams competing for a future shot at the RAW Tag Team titles.
Andrade and Garza attacked their opponents before the match began and took an early advantage. The heels then stood outside near the barricades with Zelina Vega to avoid getting in the ring for as long as possible as the two babyface teams continued to compete. They then took the heels out collectively and the field was equal from thereon.
All three teams got their big shots during the match, but it was Andrade and Garza who looked extra special throughout the contest after a long time. Garza finally caught Alexander and finished him with The Wing Clipper.
While it was obvious that the only heel team in the contest will pick up the win to go after the babyface RAW Tag Team Champions, the creatives did a good job booking this match. At one point Ricochet and Alexander looked like the favorites, even though they had to take the pin to end it all.
The two teams will meet at SummerSlam with the RAW Tag Team Titles on the line, and we could end up getting new Champions at the show.
#3 All eyes on Dominik during WWE RAW
A week after Seth Rollins critically injured Rey Mysterio at WWE Extreme Rules, Dominik was scheduled to show up on WWE RAW and possibly talk about his father’s current status and health.
Seth Rollins and Murphy were the first to arrive in the ring and spoke about what they’d recently done to Rey Mysterio and Aleister Black. The Monday Night Messiah then claimed that he hoped things would be different with Dominik as he did not want any more violence.
He invited Dominik to the ring who slowly made his way to the ring. Rollins offered the younger Mysterio to join him but Dominik ended up tackling him to the mat.
Rollins and Murphy unleashed a two-on-one attack on Dominik and The Messiah then set his sights on the steel steps once again on RAW. While they looked to injure Dominik’s eye too, Aleister Black arrived with a cast around his right hand and tried to save Mysterio’s son.
However, the heels got the better of him and Rollins took him down with The Stomp before instructing Murphy to take out Black’s eye with the corner of the steel steps. The Juggernaut hesitated but attempted to blind Black before Dominik got hold of a kendo stick and unloaded on both men before they decided to retreat.
This was a great way to bring out the fire in Dominik, even though it looks like Black will be out for some time. WWE RAW could have used Black well to launch Dominik and made the two team-up, and it will be interesting to see where Dom heads now with his father and Black both out of the game.
#2 Asuka and Sasha Banks put up a good show on WWE RAW once again
After an extremely controversial end to the WWE RAW Women’s Championship match at Extreme Rules following a great contest, Stephanie McMahon announced a rematch for the title this week. Stephanie made things more interesting by announcing that any interferences, countout, or disqualification would allow the other competitor to win the title.
Kairi Sane chased The Role Model away early to ensure that it’d be a fair fight. Asuka was focused and wanted to get her title back, and she immediately took the fight to Sasha Banks.
The contest took an interesting turn as The Boss took a page out of her idol Eddie Guerrero’s book and pretended that Asuka had attacked her with the title belt. However, the referee refused to call for disqualification as he saw what had happened.
Late in the match, Asuka once again took control from Banks but the camera cut to backstage footage showing Bayley beating up Sane. This allowed The Boss to get out of the Asuka Lock as The Empress turned all her attention to the big screen and then left the ring to save her friend.
The referee counted her out and Banks was declared the RAW Women’s Champion to add more fuel to the fire.
This was a really good television match between both women who once again showed that they are indeed two of the best and have a lot of chemistry in the ring. Banks winning controversially once again leaves the door ajar for a rematch at SummerSlam, and we could see The Boss end up having another short reign as the RAW Women’s Champion.
#1 Drew McIntyre hits a Claymore, takes an RKO on WWE RAW
Drew McIntyre accepted the challenge laid down by Randy Orton earlier on RAW for a WWE Championship match at SummerSlam. Dolph Ziggler then arrived to find out that McIntyre had decided to make the match an Extreme Rules match for both the men involved to end RAW.
Both men started off well and tried to take each other down without caring about any disqualifications. The Scottish Psychopath then sent Ziggler into the plexiglass outside the ring before taking out a kendo stick and unloading on the challenger.
The Showoff tried to get back into the match with a low blow, but he could only slow down the WWE Champion for a short while before he got back into the match and drove Ziggler into the barricade.
The face of WWE RAW kept the momentum heading into the final moments of the match and then delivered a Claymore Kick through a table to pin Ziggler and pick up the victory. After the match, Orton expectedly appeared out of nowhere and delivered an RKO to the WWE Champion to make RAW his night.
While it was odd for WWE to make us wait for a week to give this match another Extreme Rules stipulation, Ziggler and McIntyre did well to carry the momentum throughout the match and end RAW on a high for the Champion. Orton will likely be the biggest threat to The Scottish Superstar’s title, and we could end up seeing the two RAW Superstars main event SummerSlam.
